Get Your Ad Ducks in a Row with Ad Sequencing

Retargeting users who have engaged with an ad or app in one way or another is crucial for mobile advertisers to boost performance, as well as to ensure post-install engagement. Most app advertisers today realize that the end of the funnel is not the app install anymore, but the actual post-install engagement. To achieve this goal, it is important to tell a consistent story.

For app advertisers — both from gaming and non-gaming verticals — ad sequencing can be a great way to accomplish just this: identifying which users have previously already engaged with your ad or app and targeting those with a continuum of ads that address the user in the appropriate tone at the moment when they are most likely to perform the desired action. This technique is usually based on actions that users coming in contact with an ad have taken in the past, enabling advertisers to use these learnings and then create sequences based on the ideal flow to persuade users along the funnel. Ideally, each stage of the funnel should have its own appropriate ad sequence that can be played out based on a set of rules that you as the advertiser can determine.

There are different scenarios with which advertisers can leverage this product for their campaign strategy.

For Storytelling: This approach is ideal for brands who wish to tell a more personalized story about their app or product. They can identify those users who have already completed a certain stage of an ad and can show them a continuum or next sequence of the ad. This helps keep ads relevant and entertaining to the user.

For Performance: Ad Sequencing provides an ideal approach to yield a higher amount of conversions. Let’s assume out of 1000 users who viewed, 20 clicked on an ad. Advertisers can identify the 20 users that clicked but did not complete the transaction and create an ad sequence targeting those users, showing them a different ad with more detailed information or messaging. And even beyond the install, it is possible to re-engage users who have downloaded your app, yet not engaged with it afterwards to get them back to your app.

How does it work?

Let’s assume an advertiser would like to acquire new users, as well as keep them engaged and making purchases in their app.

1. First the advertiser would serve an ad with a call to action that promotes for their app to be downloaded.

2. With ad sequencing, you are now able to tailor your next ad sequence according to the user’s actions. Let’s look at the example of a user having successfully downloaded the app but not opened it. The next ad sequence would be tailored towards that, asking them to open the app and complete the signup process.

3. Now that the user has opened the app and finished the sign-up process but not booked any trips recently, they can be retargeted with relevant offers based on their behavior. This ensures that the user stays active and engaged wherever they are in the funnel.

Benefits of Ad Sequencing include:

Increased Conversion Rate: With Ad Sequencing, app advertisers can identify users who have expressed an interest in their app or product by interacting with the ad. You can leverage that data and create campaigns with a higher budget to target these users with sequential messaging which in-turn increases your chance of converting these users.

Higher LTV and maximized ROAS: Especially powerful about this technique is that you can re-engage users after the install and increase their lifetime value and your ROAS respectively by retargeting them with a sequence of ads and once they have installed the app show them an ad urging them to make an in-app purchase or perform an action within the app.

Maximum brand awareness: Ad Sequencing is an ideal vehicle for telling a personalized story about your brand and retargeting the user in a situation during which they are most susceptible to the messaging. It creates strong brand recall by maximum exposure of the user to the brand, with each creative tailored in a way that the user is seeing a sequence instead of repeating the same message over and over again to the same user.

Less ad fatigue: For each action the user performs, there will be another ad, which will be different yet still related to the previous one. This helps to raise awareness and increase personalization. The variation of ads tailored to the user’s progress in the funnel helps to mitigate ad fatigue.

Anna is a Team Lead, Product Marketing at AppLift and is based out of our Berlin office. Aside from work, she is a passionate photographer who loves to travel and also write short stories. If you catch her in deep thought, she's probably either dreaming about her love for London or planning her next meal at an Asian restaurant!

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